Complaints management

ISCO-08 4222, 4419

Complaints handler, Customer complaints officer, Customer relations officer, Ombudsman liaison officer, Complaints manager

AI exposure60%

Headcount need, in FTE

Exposure range

Your current headcount

FTE

Need in 203082 FTE-18 FTE (-18%)

Need in 203564 FTE-36 FTE (-36%)

How AI is used on these tasks today

Automation 41%Augmentation 59%

In AI conversations about this job's tasks: the AI does the task itself (automation) or helps the person do it (augmentation).Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. Occupations: Customer Service Representatives, Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks. AEI

1. Exposure 60%Average automation potential of the job's tasks. Range for this family: 52 to 66%.ILO occupations used: Contact Centre Information Clerks (58%), Clerical Support Workers Not Elsewhere Classified (63%). ILO data

2. Strategic ceiling 100%Your call: how much of this potential do you want to capture? Nobody can set it for you.

3. Adoption speed midpoint 2030

Inherits your company stance, adjustable for this family.

4. Conversion to headcount sensitive 60%Default 60%: Complaint volumes follow service quality and regulation rather than team capacity, so time saved on simple cases mostly reduces headcount.

Target AI skills

level 1 to 4

Foundation

Use AI assistants every day

Frame and phrase a request

Check and challenge AI outputs

Protect data and respect the rules

Applied

Rethink one's process with AI

Analyse data with AI

Produce content with AI

Delegate to and supervise AI agents

Job skills

Growing in value

Handling escalated and emotionally charged complaints
Legal reasoning on contract terms
Root cause analysis of recurring complaints
Preparing files for the ombudsman

Losing value

Sorting and qualifying incoming complaints
Drafting standard acknowledgements and replies
Retrieving file history across systems
Tracking regulatory response deadlines

How the job will change

AI already sorts incoming complaints by subject and urgency, retrieves the policy, claim and contact history, and drafts a reasoned reply that the handler only needs to check. Simple complaints, such as a late reimbursement or a billing error, can be resolved in a few minutes instead of a day spent searching across systems.

Handlers keep the complaints where tone and judgement matter: a refused claim after a serious loss, a vulnerable customer, a threat of legal action, a case heading to the ombudsman. The job also moves towards analysing recurring causes and feeding them back to claims, sales and product teams. A good handler tomorrow writes with care and reasons clearly on contract terms.

2026-2027: Automatic sorting of complaints, AI-drafted replies checked by handlers.
2028-2030: Simple complaints resolved almost automatically, teams focus on sensitive cases.
2031+: Smaller teams combining sensitive cases and root cause analysis.

Watch out

Regulators watch how insurers treat complaints, especially from vulnerable customers. Over-automating replies risks standardised answers that miss the real grievance and push more cases to the ombudsman. See the seniority outlook below.

What if you hired fewer juniors?

Your 2036 seniors are the juniors you hire today.

Seniors available in 2036-10%2 FTE short

Gap above 5% from2031

Your seniority mix today

Juniors (0 to 2 yrs in the profession)35%Seniors (6+ yrs)20%

Mid-level (2 to 6 yrs in the profession, the remainder)45%

Cut in junior hiring -40%

For

Advanced settings

Juniors promoted each year33%Juniors leaving each year15%Senior gap filled by external hiring0%If every company makes the same bet, senior profiles will be scarce and expensive.

Seniority mix, % of today's headcount

Juniors35%Mid-level42%Seniors18%

2026 2036

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How the numbers are built

Every headcount figure combines four assumptions. Three come pre-filled from public research and job family defaults. The strategic ceiling is yours to set.

Public researchExposureAverage automation potential of the job's tasks, from the ILO's 2025 task-level scores.

Your decisionStrategic ceilingHow much of that potential you choose to capture. Your decision, not ours.

Your companyAdoption speedHow fast your company moves, set once for the whole company.

Job family defaultConversion to headcountHow much of the productivity gain becomes fewer people rather than more output.

Headcount effect

Seniority outlook

A flow model with three levels of experience in the profession. Promotion and exit rates are set so that today's mix stays stable when hiring does not change: any gap you see comes from the junior hiring cut alone.